Stasha happy at her forever home with Barbara Venezia after being adopted at the Pet Expo. PHOTO COURTESY OF BARBARA VENEZIA

As a new OC Fair board member, my husband Stan Tkaczyk is interested in everything that happens at the OC Fairgrounds. He even spent a few days in our motor home to familiarize himself with the operation and the staff.

So it was no surprise when last Saturday morning he wanted to stop by the Pet Expo to check it out.

We've never had a pet. We've talked about it from time to time over the past 23 years, but never felt we were ready.

Most of our friends have dogs or cats. I've watched some of them crazily overindulge their pets and swore I'd never join those ranks.

Never say never.

As we walked into the Pet Expo, our very first stop was Pets Forever Found K-9 Rescue.

In a pen were the cutest mixed breed puppies frolicking.

Among the chaos was one sitting quietly; our eyes met.

The next thing I knew Stan was holding her and it was love at first sight. As they both looked up at me, my husband asked, "Do you think we could have a dog?"

Time stood still, my thoughts raced. This is a big responsibility, are we grown up enough?

A few weeks ago I'd written a column about emotionally disturbed pets - suppose this puppy's crazy?

As I was thinking of all the reasons why I should say no, I said yes.

With so many animals needing rescue, how could I not say yes? This 5-month-old puppy needed a family, and even if we didn't have a clue as to how to raise her, we were fun and she'd have a good life.

Within 15 minutes we were the new owners of this adorable Chihuahua–Labrador mix.

This is a weird combo for sure; someone must have had a step ladder is all I can say.

One of the nice things about adopting a rescue animal is that most rescue organizations will have already taken care of shots, micro-chipping, and neutering before they put an animal up for adoption, as was the case here.

We filled out some simple paperwork, made a $150 donation and off we went.

On the walk to the car, Stan named the dog Stasha, which is Polish for Stacy, after his mom.

My mother-in-law had a wicked sense of humor and I'm sure she's looking down from heaven laughing at us two goofs with a dog.

I told my husband, "We can't turn into crazy dog people." He agreed - then we bought her a pink rhinestone dog collar at the swap meet.

We realized dogs need stuff, next stop PetSmart, where I turned pet stupid.

Stasha now has a pink floral life vest for when she goes boating, and an array of items perfect for motor homing. I drew the line at pet clothing, though overindulged in grooming products since every girl needs to feel pretty and smell nice.

Then I got really hokey and posted photos with our new puppy on Facebook. Friends were shocked! We're the last people in the world any of them ever expected would get a dog.

Congratulatory messages were plentiful.

The phone was ringing off the hook.

Friends stopped by all weekend to meet our new family member.

One girlfriend wanted to know if I would be having professional photos taken of our dog for doggie announcements.

Another brought by gourmet cookies from a dog bakery. I had no idea such a thing even existed! Apparently, there's a whole new doggie product world for me to explore.

Though she's a bit young for anything other than puppy kibble, I cracked open the "At Home on the Range" cookbook to re-familiarize myself with the recipe that catapulted us to fame - our homemade dog food.

It was the most requested recipe on our cooking show, getting rave reviews from dogs and their owners.

This is the original John Crean recipe:

Four cups of cooked instant rice, two large shredded carrots , one pound of cooked navy beans, two shredded potatoes, three pounds of 30 percent fat hamburger , four eggs, one teaspoon of salt, one quarter cup of wheat germ, and four teaspoons of beef bouillon.

Mix this all together and place in a large baking pan. Bake for an hour and a half at 350 degrees.

This can be refrigerated and re-served to your dog for up to two weeks.

Guess I'm officially turning into a crazy obsessive dog person and loving every minute of it.

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